Guest Essay by Kip Hansen — 19 November 2023
![](https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/featured_VF_300.jpg?resize=300%2C150&ssl=1)
Valley Fever — which can sometimes be deadly and sometimes so innocuous as to be mistaken for a cold or mild flu — has now been added to the list of things “caused by climate change”. Actually, the real claim is that the future spread of Valley Fever, if it occurs, will be caused by climate change because “models”.
The paper is reported in an article in the Washington Post, titled “An invisible killer” which was written by Joshua Partlow, Veronica Penney and Carolyn Van Houten and published Nov. 13 2023. The lede or sub-title is “A flesh-eating fungus is expanding its range in the American West — and scientists suspect climate change is driving the spread”.
They first tell the story of a single man and his horrific encounter with Valley Fever. And it is true that some people can get very sick with Valley Fever – but very few.
The CDC says: “Valley fever, also called coccidioidomycosis, is an infection caused by the fungus Coccidioides. The fungus is known to live in the soil in the southwestern United States and parts of Mexico and Central and South America. The fungus was also recently found in south-central Washington. People can get Valley fever by breathing in the microscopic fungal spores from the air, although most people who breathe in the spores don’t get sick. Usually, people who get sick with Valley fever will get better on their own within weeks to months, but some people will need antifungal medication. Certain groups of people are at higher risk for becoming severely ill. It’s difficult to prevent exposure to Coccidioides in areas where it’s common in the environment, but people who are at higher risk for severe Valley fever should try to avoid breathing in large amounts of dust if they’re in these areas.”
Please take note: Nowhere, in any description outside of the MSM (all of which seem to be quoting the Washington Post), is the fungus that causes Valley Fever referred to as a “flesh-eating fungus”. There is a condition called Necrotizing Fasciitis but it is caused by bacteria (Strep A is the most likely culprit), not a fungus and certainly not Coccidioides. A search of the CDC website returns no instances of any flesh-eating fungal infections.
Really, our hard-working team of journalists are reporting, with extravagance, about a study done by Morgan Gorris in 2019. Her University of California, Irvine web page says: “I study coccidioidomycosis, also known as valley fever, an infectious disease caused by the inhalation of airborne fungal spores. As our climate changes, the atmospheric transport patterns and habitable environment of this species is hypothesized to shift, causing new populations to be exposed to the disease. I am interested in relating past epidemiological trends of valley fever cases to climate and environmental factors which influence the life cycle of the fungi. I then use these relationships to forecast what new populations may be susceptible to contracting valley fever in response to future climate change.”
Her study “Expansion of Coccidioidomycosis Endemic Regions in the United States in Response to Climate Change” naturally used RCP8.5 to “predict the climate” of the American West out to 2095, based on precipitation and temperature, and produced this animated gif to illustrate the “hypothesized spread” of Valley Fever.
![](https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/gorris_vf2.gif?resize=720%2C518&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/gorris_vf2.gif?resize=720%2C518&ssl=1)
The down to earth truth is that scientists and doctors have no idea whatever how widely the fungus that causes Valley Fever can be found in the western parts of the United States. Or exactly what the natural reservoir of the fungus is that causes Valley Fever when its spores or fungus fragments are inhaled by humans. They only know where the fungus is found by looking at where Valley Fever cases are found. In the last decade doctors were surprised to find a cluster of Valley Fever cases in eastern Washington State that were confirmed to have been contracted locally, and not in Southern California or Arizona. The fungi that cause Valley Fever are Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasiii. In the United States, scientists have found C. immitis primarily in California, as well as Washington State. C. posadasii is found primarily in Arizona, as well as New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Texas, and portions of southern California.
![](https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/mosquitoes-vector_400.jpg?resize=400%2C289&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/mosquitoes-vector_400.jpg?resize=400%2C289&ssl=1)
When the word reservoir is used with a disease-causing factor (such as a germ, bacteria, virus) this means “one or more epidemiologically connected populations or environments in which the pathogen can be permanently maintained and from which infection is transmitted to the defined target population” [ source ]. In other words, where the pathogen lives when before it is transmitted to and infects a human (in this case). For malaria, it is often incorrectly believed that mosquitos are the reservoir but this is not true. Humans themselves are the reservoir for malaria (and dengue and others) and mosquitos are only the vector.
For Valley Fever, an environment of a particular type seems to be the reservoir: the hot, dry, dusty soils found in the dry areas of the American West.
The number of Valley Fever cases is increasing:
![](https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/stats.jpg?resize=720%2C371&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/stats.jpg?resize=720%2C371&ssl=1)
The most important factors for Valley Fever stats are: Increased surveillance (many states require reporting cases, many do not) which also means more doctors looking and testing for Valley Fever; and the number of people exposing themselves to Valley Fever – more people four-wheeling and off-roading in the deserts of the American West. The number of cases outside of Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah is so small it is difficult to see it in the CDC chart (above).
We know that the Valley Fever fungus is found in the dry soils of the American southwest, more easily found in the holes that rodents dig and live in: whether or not the rodents have any relationship to the fungus or if the rodents are just digging and exposing the underground growing fungus is not known. Valley Fever was first found in the San Juaquin Valley of California, mostly among the farm workers there, who are most likely to be exposed to dust in the fields. Contraction of the disease is usually associated with inhalation of fine soil dust, and more so, it seems, when the soils re-dry after heavy rains.
The idea that Valley Fever could have an expanded range came from a confirmed cluster of cases in eastern Washington State, a kid landed on his face in the dusty desert from his off-road cycle and inhaled a lungful of dust. He developed Valley Fever. Since that case was confirmed, more people were tested.
In 2007, Valley Fever cases were reported in the following areas:
![](https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Valley-Fever-in-2007_800.jpg?resize=720%2C440&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Valley-Fever-in-2007_800.jpg?resize=720%2C440&ssl=1)
The U.S. CDC shares this map of the range of Coccidioides:
![](https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Range-and-Potential-Range-Today.jpg?resize=720%2C637&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Range-and-Potential-Range-Today.jpg?resize=720%2C637&ssl=1)
So, there we have it. The CDC knows where Valley Fever cases occur, and maps the suspected existing range of Coccidioides – Darker shaded “areas where Coccidioides is more likely to live”. This map was developed by tracking Valley Fever cases, and not through soil testing for the fungus. Diagonal shading shows the potential range of Coccidioides, where the fungus might be found if the soils were tested, but even then, it would be found only by chance, as it is in the areas it is known to be extant. The CDC states explicitly: “These maps show CDC’s current estimate of where the fungi that cause coccidioidomycosis (Valley fever) live in the environment. These fungi are not distributed evenly in the shaded areas, might not be present everywhere in the shaded areas, and can also be outside the shaded areas.”
As we can see below, the Gorris projection for 2095 is very close to the CDC statement of where Coccidioides already is suspected of existing:
![](https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Now-and-the-future.jpg?resize=720%2C273&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Now-and-the-future.jpg?resize=720%2C273&ssl=1)
Bottom Line:
If you live in Arizona or the Joaquin Valley of California and are a dedicated desert dust-eater (four-wheeling, off-road Jeeping, prospecting in dusty soils, or doing archaeology out West), you need to be aware of Valley Fever and wear protective breathing gear to keep the dust out of your lungs.
The fungi Coccidioides might be found in the soils anywhere west of the Rockies and doctors and nurses should be aware of the possibility of Valley Fever cases.
The rest of us can ignore the alarmist press on it.
Coccidioides is NOT a flesh-eating fungi. (It can cause a rash.)
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Authors Comment:
If this story (well, a sensible, non-alarmist version of it) had appeared in the Phoenix Sun or any local southwestern newspaper, it would be a public good, reminding people of the possibility of Valley Fever and its causes and symptoms. Its appearance in the Washington Post, “flesh-eating fungus”, can only be propaganda.
COP28 hysteria on climate change – which, apparently, causes everything bad and nothing good.
I spent a lot of my youth in the deserts of California, Nevada and Arizona – didn’t get Valley Fever – did get Cat Scratch Fever though.
Thanks for reading.
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